Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-12-03
THE GOOD OLD TIMES.

THE GOOD OLD TIMES.
Farmer Blewitt was a little dried-up,
irascibie man, and he used to wear a red
comforter around his neck and red flannel
ear-lappers on his plug hat when he went
to meeting in winter He was always
ready to argue that these modern times
were awfully bad, and that the good old
times of hundred years ago were Just
right. He would decry invention and i'm
provement, and say that the world would
be better without it. He took news
paper on purpose to count the murders re-
corded in it, and tell how bad the world
had grown. He would stand for hours on
a corner in the village and retail his de-
auctions on the present and his regrets for
the past.
One day he had whipped the minister
in argument, and as he had had his din
ner, and the minister had gone away mad.
and the women were at work in the
kitchen, he tipped back in his chair, drew
red silk handkerchief over his head to
keep the flies off, and went to sleep. He
had not slept over five minutes before his
son John came in and said:
"Come, father, we must get at that piece
OF wheat and cut it."
The old man got up and yawned, and
followed his son out to the barnyard
where his two sons sat on log filing a
couple of sickles
What in the nation are YOU doing
with those old sickles?" said Blewitt.
One of the boys looked astonished, and
said: DOM why, we are getting ready
to cut the wheat"
BlewItt stared moment, and then said :
Why in thunder don't you hitch onto
that reaper, and stop foolin' with them
sickles ?"
The boys looked at each other in sur
prise, but said nothing. Blewitt ran to
the shed, but there was no reaper there
he came back. The boys had got over the
fence, and were on their knees reaping the
wheat and carrying it in gavels.
Boys" said Blewitt, "what do you
mean by this foolishness; where is that
reaper ~
Charley, the second boy, looked at his
father pityingly, and then tapped his fore
head and looked over to John, who nodded
and looked sad.
Why, darn it." said Blewitt, "you can
never run them bundles through a thrashin'
machine"
Thrashin' machine" said Charley !;
"why, you know as well as | do that
shall have TO fail this wheat out mornings
and nights, while going to school this win
ter. What ails you, father"
Rlpyy1ff W. caII mod aoc,l,-
and now he just hoped up and down,
and said:
Flail it out; it must be thrashed ready
to ship on the cars next month"
Cars, cars" said John; :" don't know
what ails you, father, or what you mean
| know | shall have to team this wheat
down to Albany and sell it for what it will
bring. Here you come out talkin' about
reapers and cars and thrashin' machines,
and darned if | don't believe YOU are
crazy; so now"
Blewitt pinched himself 10 see if he was
awake, and strobe angrily to the house
As he approached it he heard rumbling
and roaring like wind, and he looked into
the kitchen, and there was his wife spin
ming. Who-o-o, went the big wheel, and
Blewitt sank into chair and yelled:
Now, Maria, what under the canopy
are you dom p
Doin'? p said his wife, why, spinnin',
of course. must get out 40 yards of full
cloth for you and the boys, and 20 yards of
pressed flannel for me and the gals"
Blewitt looked down at his legs and saw
them encased in full cloth of coarse tex
ture, and the seat of his trousers he felt
reached clear up to his shoulder-blades,
and the legs were as wide as two bushel
sacks
"Well, I'll be darned," was all he said.
Dreamily he sauntered out again to the
wheat field, and John hailed him.
Father, if you amt goin' to help cut
the wheat, suppose you yoke the oxen and
go up to the woods and draw draft or two
Of logs for wood"
Blewitt was composed; but he said: " |
had intended to burn coal in the sitting
room and parlor, and not cut much wood
Coal, coal - said John angrily, now
see here, father. don't want any more OF
this foolish talk. I'm goin' to git doc
tor"
Blewitt began to think he needed one
himself. Here his boy had never heard of
a reaper or a thrashing machine or cars.
He felt of his full cloth pants and groaned.
On the lounge at the house he laid him
self down and tried to calmly think things
over. When the doctor came he called for
a pail and barred Blewitt's arm, took out a
lance, and then Blewitt groaued again.
must take gallon of blood" said the
doctor, and then he will calm down and
be all right"
Don't you know bleedin' was PLAYED
out fifty years ago." said Blewitt.
How he wanders," said the doctor, and
plunged in his lancet. Blewitt tainted.
When he came to himself he heard one OF
the girls talking about an artist down to
the village who took profile pictures with
a spindle az natural as life.
aWhat do you want with such blamed
pictures as that" said Blewitt, from the
lounge why don't you go down to
Tak'ems at Albany and git photographs g'
photographs F' said the whole family
"what funny names he gets off in his crazy
fancy"
Blewitt was too weak to argue, and he
seemed to be somehow out of sympathy or
knowledge with all mankind; so he Just
Law still and watched the girls get supper
He noticed that the fireboard was down
and fire built in the fireplace. A kettle
was on the hearth and was covered with
live Goals. Soon he saw the girls take out
of the kettle some nice buiscuit, and he
weakly said: "Why don't you use the cook
stove?" "Poor pa" said Angelina " how
he wanders Cook stove! Wonder what
he means?"
Blewitt closed his eyes and thought
Bayley, his Few neighbor, was man he
could trust-that is, in anything but money
matt rs. He knew Bayley was badly in
debt, but he was good fellow. he would
send for him; SO he called his wife and
told her to send for him.